Over the past few weeks our class was very lucky to go to several day trips around Italy for some great first-person fashion information!Our first trip we visited a textile mill in Prato. Prato has been historically known for its textile industry, particularly woolen fabrics since the Middle Ages.
We visited this small little town, right outside of Florence to see the process of woolen fabrics being produced in a factory. The factory we visited has been ran be the same family that began the company many generations ago. It supplies all colors and types of woolen fabrics for designer labels and other retailers.
We were given a tour starting with touching some of the fibers that would soon turn into massive sheets of fabric . We were guided around seeing all the processes from the weaving to dying to cleaning and inspecting.
It was such a great experience watching this multi-stepped, perfected process, that normally you don't think about when buying a sweater that it had to go through.
But as we are a group of 50 girls, the fabric was only partially our main interest of the trip. What our real concern was is if this Italian Stallion running the company was wed with children yet. Our handsome tour guide attracted all of us to be in the front to hear his incredibly fascinating story about fabric, not dream of course.
The next trip we visited the Maramotti Museum and the city Bologna. This museum is a collection of modern art pieces collected by the founder of the brand MaxMara. Achille Maramotti, the founder, bought pieces from modern artists in their earliest years of work, before they were famous. He knew the importance and connection between social issues, art, and fashion. This is still an underlying belief of the family business which is why this museum is free entry to share this importance with all the community.It was an extremely inspiring museum from textures, to illusions, innovations, and emotional attachments. It showed modern artists work from all around the world with famous American artists like Basquiat and Matthew Barney.
After the museum visit we went to Bologna which is particularly known for its delicious tortellini. We didn't do much else besides eat tortellini while we were there too. It lived well up to its fame, maybe being the best meal I have had in Italy so far.
Most recently we visited a leather shoe-making factory. It makes leather shoes from scratch to finish for many high-end labels. We witnessed the pattern-makers, the sewers, those attaching the heels, and even the lady touching up with a marker the dye job.
After seeing all the foot forms, straps, fabrics, etc and how they're put together we hopped down to the shop in which they sells some of these beautiful, well made creations.
Shocking as it may be I did not buy any new shoes, but it was still a great experience seeing the process that allows a piece to have the prestigious tag of "Made in Italy."
